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how to make fancy invitations

Our little girl has a birthday this week.

She had a darling first birthday party {see more here} with pretty invitations, party hats and goodie bags – but she doesn’t remember any of it. We didn’t do a big party last year and so now that she is three and has best friends {as she loves to say}, throwing her a party is a big deal. She’s only been talking about it since last August.

We’re not going over-the-top, but it will be a little fancy and so of course I had to do something special with her invitations.

I’ll walk you through how I made these and hopefully share a few helpful tips and tools in case you want to make your own sparkly cards.

First, I designed the invitations in Adobe Illustrator using a silhouette I had already created for another project. I have a tutorial for how to create your own right here. It is not exactly how I made this one, but it works. I’m sure there are a million different ways to create a silhouette – I just like having it in digital format so I can re-size and use for multiple projects. Anyway, design the invitations, print on nice card stock and trim {I use this paper trimmer}.

In the meantime, switch out the straight blade on the rotary trimmer for a scalloped one {fun, right?!} and cut backing paper to size.

Besides the paper cutter, my most loved tool is this tape gun. It has rolls of double-sided tape that makes adhering a breeze.

To protect the glitter and mostly because I just love this polka dot tissue paper, I added a piece before inserting into the envelope.

For the label, I created a template {1.5″ x 11″}, printed on full sheet sticker paper, cut into strips and then cut notches in each end for a ribbon look.

The labels make for an extra special presentation.

We’re excited to celebrate our sweet girl!

One more thought: We can get a little carried away with children’s birthday parties. I know I can. Most three-year-olds don’t care much about details like scalloped edges and tissue paper inserts. And the ruffled tablecloth that I spent all day saturday working on? She’ll probably hardly notice. These things are fun for me and so I go for it. She would be perfectly happy eating cupcakes with her friends at the kitchen table – I think most kids would – but instead we throw them themed parties that cost a fortune and feel a bit over-indulgent. Who are we trying to impress? I’ve had to double-check my motives with each of my kids’ birthdays. We all love a cute party with fun decorations and a perfectly coordinating food table – I think even our kids do. My oldest adores having decorations up for any celebration. I just want to be mindful of the purpose behind it all: to make my birthday girl/boy feel especially celebrated. Hopefully someday Audrey will look back on these invitations and see that through details like scalloped edges and tissue paper inserts was a mommy who truly loved her and wanted to make her third birthday a fancy one.

I absolutely love these! Our little girl turns 2 in 4 months & I definitely want to attempt these invitations! I love the font & the polka dot paper! I do hope you will share the source of the paper soon!

Love these! Please share the name of the font used! You are a wealth of inspiration for me as a mom and a graphic designer…i would never delete an email from you…I have to see what you are always up to! Thanks.

These are so great! I hear you on the temptation to go over the top with kids’ parties. Sometimes, the simpler, the better. But, I also like what you said about our kids being able to look back on our fancy details and feel special and loved. Because feeling special and loved it what it’s all about anyway!

Beautiful job, Emily! I am in the beginning stages of learning Illustrator…thanks for taking the time to create a tutorial out of this because it is just darling! And I love your little note at the bottom about remembering birthdays are for our children to feel special, not we moms to get an extra pat on the back. I realized that about myself a year ago, we changed our tune, and we are much less stressed now when birthday time rolls around!

These are so beautiful and so is your sentiment behind the preparations. I, too, loved creating fun and special birthdays for my daughter (who is now 30). She treasures the memories, and you know what? I loved each and every minute that I was making pretty things for all to enjoy. Keep on showing your love, it is a Momma’s prerogative !!!

The funny thing about us throwing those wonderfully themed parties and thinking the kids don’t notice is that they really do notice..and they remember them! My children are grown.. the oldest is about to turn twenty-six and is expecting her first baby in August, and my twins are twenty and are sophomores in college. They can tell you every birthday party theme they ever had and how wonderful each one was. They love the fact that I took the time to have special invitations printed for each party and the time and effort that went into making their parties special for them and their friends. I can remember one year when we did the tea party theme at a fancy little shop in Mtn. Brook and had Mary Poppins (she was from a local theater group in Birmingham) come in full costume and character,,,the little girls, who were all seven, watched in amazement as she walked down the sidewalk with her umbrella and carpet bag…One dad asked me how I would top that the next year…I told him I had tons of ideas! In fact, I did that party with the same Mary Poppins for both of my girls for their seventh birthday. The boy twin was a little harder to come up with cute ideas for once he got older and had separate parties. So you just keep doing those special things for your little one. They grow up so fast!! I don’t regret a penny I spent or how many nights I stayed up til all hours of the night to make everything perfect…And now I get to start over again with a Grandbaby!!

These are SO cute Emily! Of course I love the glitter, but the reality of those making an appearance in my household at this point is slim, but I LOOOVVEEE the “ribbon” labels on the outside. Those def make them extra fancy. :)

I appreciate going to parties where attention was paid to every single detail. I say, if it’s your talent then you’re obligated to share it with others! ;) I really hope you’ll share pictures from the party too. Precious!

What I constantly ask myself when I’m creating something, small or elaborate, is “are you enjoying this?” If I cannot answer yes to that simple question, I know it’s time to walk away from it, scale down, order it from someone, etc. My children are 1 and almost 4, they CERTAINLY don’t have much preference on their birthday parties yet, but I really, truly enjoy creating for them…which is why I put so much work into it. BUT, the very moment it actually becomes work/chore, I’m not doing it anymore or, rather, I’m doing it differently. Does that make sense? haha

Either way, I LOVE the invites you created for your Miss Audrey girl, they are simply adorable.

Audrey’s invitations turned out so pretty. How special she must feel to have a mommy that takes the time to be so creative with her invitations. I think I will try to make similar ones for my daughter’s birthday.